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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

One thing I am a little sad about is the space where I'll get ready at the church. It's just a plain church room, with not much in it. No lovely French mirrors and marbled dressers like this estate. Things like that make such a beautiful back drop for all the "getting ready" pictures. But it's ok, that's certainly not the most important thing in the world!

You need to double click the above picture and zoom in. The looks on the bride's parents' faces are absolutely priceless...a precious moment captured.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Well hello there! It seems like wedding things are picking up faster than I can keep up with! Now that I actually have some physical evidence, I thought I'd share with you some details.

The bridesmaids dresses came in last week and I love them! They've been a bit of a trial, to say the least, but I'm happy with the final result. I won't bore you with all the details of our dress saga, but we ended up ordering from (and being completely thrilled with) the company inweddingdress.com.

but we snipped three of the (ginormous!) flowers off to keep things a little more refined and simple. I looooove how they turned out! And they look great on all body types, which is what I was going for, since I have 7 uniquely built bridesmaids. The gray color is absolutely lovely as well.

Sorry for the ugly blurring here and there, but it's probably not wise to splash our personal info all over the internet : )

Next up, the stationery. I designed everything myself, which was so much fun! The violets on the invitation are actually vintage illustrations downloaded from vintageprintable.com. I purchased the script font (which I am positively IN LOVE with) from myfonts.com. It's called Nelly Script Flourish, in case you're interested in downloading it too. The vintage-inspired block font is called Ecuyer Dax and the sans serif is Lane Narrow, both from dafont.com (the best free font site, in my humble opinion). Hopefully that helps all you other DYI brides out there!

We were inspired by this and this to line our charcoal gray envelopes with doilies. I'm using a lot of lace motifs in the wedding, and I think the doilies really reflect that, and also help the charcoal pop. My bridesmaids are ROCKSTARS and came over to help me glue and line the envelopes ... no easy task : ) I think they turned out beautifully!

Isn't Sarah's (one of my bffs/bridesmaids) handwriting to die for? She could be a calligrapher!

Well, that's all for now! Do you have any questions? According to my google analytics, my blog is most found through people searching for wedding ideas, so if you're a bride looking for inspiration and I didn't cover everything, please shoot me an email (there's a button to the right). I'd be more than happy to talk details with you!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Well hello friends! How are you all? I've missed you! Things are certainly picking up on the wedding end of things, so I've been a busy little bee! The bridesmaids dresses came in today and they are gorgeous! I absolutely love them! Our stationery came from the printer so I've been writing thank you notes like mad now that we finally have our custom ones. I promise to give you all a little peek once I manage to have a photo shoot with everything.

Since we can't/won't actually move into our new home until June (mid-May if I'm lucky), I've just been dying to get to decorating things. Olio Board to the rescue again! I'm so sorry if you're bored of seeing these from me but it's about the only decorating outlet I have these days so bear with me : )

I'd like to present...our living room!

Lovely, no? Let me take you on a little tour...

If you remember, that is the actual coffee table that was such an awful search then awesome score. It looks great next to a white slip covered couch.

The photo wall is via Melanie from Pretties and Posies, and I want to do one that's very similar. The bus roll art is from Bed Bath and Beyond and was a gift from Matt's family this Christmas. I can't wait to hang them in our new house!

The armoire is an interesting piece...we don't own it but I've been checking Craigslist for an armoire to hide the TV that I could paint. However, this baby (with all my various coupons) is on sale for $160 at JC Penney. That's less than I paid for the coffee table! I won't be buying any more furniture right now, but I do have my eye on her! And she looks just lovely in our living room, huh??

The urn and curly willow are what we're using as some of the decor at the wedding, so I'm sure I'll have bunches of it stashed here and there throughout the house. I like the visual interest it adds.

I do have a clear lamp with a linen drum shade like the one on the side table, though mine is more traditionally shaped, but I'm glad to know it goes so well in the room. Mine was $20 from Target, plus $15 for the shade from Walmart. And yep, it looks exactly the same as the Pottery Barn versions that sell for a couple hundred : )

I think that's all! What do you think? Pretty comfy and inviting, huh? Have you gotten addicted to Olio Boards yet?

Friday, April 8, 2011

Happy Friday everyone! This has become my favorite day of the week, I think. What are your plans for the weekend?

To start things off right for you, I wanted to introduce you to a wonderful new blog I've just happened upon through my favorite party, Good Life Wednesdays at A Beach Cottage.

Meet Deborah from The Fisherman's Cottage. Her blog and home are gorgeous, and I know you will be just as inspired as I was by her lovely photos and projects.

She lives in England, in a wonderful fisherman's cottage near the beach that she's filled with vintage treasures.

Just look at how beautiful her home is!

She's fitted her lovely kitchen with vintage furniture instead of built-in cabinets. I love that look!

Her photography is gorgeous...

This whole collection of things were found buried in her yard, as she converted it into a garden. I wish treasure this beautiful was buried in my back yard : )

Mmmm I'd love to have a true English tea someday.

That chandelier's to die for, huh?

Make sure to stop by Deborah's place and say hello! It's filled with gorgeous photos and English charm...what more can you ask for?

{live beautifully}Courtney

PS- All photos are from The Fisherman's Cottage. Please don't use them without Deborah's permission. Thanks : )PPS- This is my 100th post. I wish I had some festive way to celebrate. A giveaway perhaps?? Hmmm...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

To make up for my lost Sunday Etsy Favorites this week, I just had to show you what I'm loving right now. It's really the little things in life, isn't it? The gentle tarnish of old silver, the antique font on a sweet clock face, the detail in handmade lace. Simple pleasures.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Since you're probably completely wedding-ed out, and bored with Olio Boards since I just did one...I'm doing the obvious and showing you a board for our wedding : ) They're just too much fun to work on, and it's so cool to see a visual representation of what our big day might kind of look like.Even though I have images and ideas floating around in my head, it's really incredible to see it all together like this. It's bringing my dream to life! Does this give you a clear vision of what it'll be like? I wish I could include elements from my dress and ensemble for the day, but I don't want to spoil anything : )

Thanks for reading! I really love you guys! And I promise to get back to decor stuff soon : )

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Hello there friends! How are we all doing? I'm doing great considering it's 70ish days til the wedding! Aaahh!! I can hardly contain my excitement! : )

So I mentioned Matt and I were having a date night downtown, and we had such a good time. We got all prettied up and ate at one of our fave restaurants. It's in one of the coolest nooks of the city, called Old Town Square, and there are some fun shops and art galleries near by. We spent the evening browsing, exploring, talking, reconnecting, laughing and wandering from shop to shop. We also got gelato at one of my favorite eateries. Mmmm!

See, aren't we cute all ready to go out on the town?

While in one of my favorite shops located in the square, I spied this pretty little blue notebook.

It's a five-year journal, and all you have to do is write a sentence or two each day about what you did or what you experienced. I loved it!

Ignore my scribbly handwriting...it's a bit difficult to write on the small pages : )

I used to journal every night for years and years, but it just got to be too time consuming. With this, I jot a bit down and I'm done!

It also helps if you have a cute scalloped cake plate to display it on ; )

Plus, you can look back over the years and remember milestones or fun day-to-day events you had forgotten about.

I found one online here in case you want to start your own. Do you all journal? I guess that's sorta what a blog's for, huh? : )

Welcome, friend! I'm wife, mama and decorator who loves to share the pretty in life. This is the place I share simple decorating ideas, things I'm loving lately and a bit of life along the way. So glad to have you here!